Monday, March 26, 2007

From the original breaking news over at PFT (I don't care what Neil Best from Newsday says) to this....from the NY Times' Richard Sandomir (whom I trust and respect a tad bit more).

After one season as the lead analyst for “Monday Night Football” on ESPN, Joe Theismann will be dismissed and replaced by Ron Jaworski, the network is scheduled to announce today. Theismann is expected to be offered another job at the network.

I really don't know how to act for some reason. While others took Tony K. to task last year....I yelled and ranted about Theeeesmann. I even asked for both of their heads at one point. But in the aftermath of this whole thing....I really have no emotions about it one way or another. Maybe I'm just upset that Jaws will be good, and have a repoire with Tony K.....thus making my weekly live-blogs no longer any fun. Oh well....I'll find a way around it.

You know what I have emotions about.....Neil Best. (Read my rant after the jump)....What the hell is it with writers of major newspapers these days? FYI- As blogs it's our "mission" to beat you to any and all stories, but what happens when we do? You f'ing steal stuff for your own.

"You need to rip Neil Best for stealing your sh-t. I mean, he just completely ripped you off. . . . You need to pull out a little of that old school PFT whoop ass. Maybe a PFT pic featuring Newsday and Neil Best. I'm serious. This is just wrong stealing this. Neil had NO F--KING CLUE until you broke it."

If you were paying attention on the First Round Grades Post.....Neil has done this before. He mentioned in an article that Gus Johnson shouldn't have been yelling that he should have mentioned the intentional foul on Oden, and Xavier not fouling on the final shot. Well I wasn't going to bring it up, but this is from my post on Monday March 19th....

From the last post: Anonymous said...Gus Johnson is the WORST--Doesn't question if the Oden's foul was intentional, doesn't even bring up that Xavier should foul before the 3-point shot attempt. He's just a screamer like Dickie V with lots of sound and fury and signifying nothing. He belongs at the high school level.

When did Best's article run? March 20th. I don't want to start a war with Newsday because I like the paper. My first press came from them during the whole Song Girl ordeal. But seriously.....twice in two weeks? Just quote your sources and we're fine. Hell....mine was an anonymous commenter.....I would have quoted him if I could.

So Neil......see how I quoted both the NY Times AND ProFootball Talk up top? Learn the HTML code.....it's not hard you hack.

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Comments:

Finally, MNF has a chance to be good. Theismann is a bad color guy... I still can't get over him calling an incomplete pass (by Bulger iirc) a 'perfect pass'. Then Joe will play the "I'm a former QB therefore I know more than everyone" card. He was just brutal and had zero sense of humor. Maybe a booth of Packer, Nantz, and Theismann would work…

Kornheiser likes Jaws and has had Jaws on his radio show in the past... if he stinks this year he only has himself to blame. But I doubt it, Tony's good with people he likes and who have a sense of humor.

Neil Best aside, this is a really good move by ESPN. Jaws is awesome in about 100 ways (and I don't only say that because I'm an Eagles fan). Theismann is kind of a less-offensive Billy Packer in the sense that he says absolutely ridiculous stuff and doesn't expect to be called on it.

The thing is, Kornheiser actually did call Theismann on a good percentage of his nonsense, which is why I think the Tirico / Jaws / Tony team will work very well.

I know everyone likes to rip Tony, but I didn't think he was bad at all. I think the Joe/Jaws switch will allow Tony to grow into the role he was supposed to play in the booth -- which wasn't supposed to be Theismann Bullshit Police.

I really think this could work. Anyone who's seen Jaws interact with Tony on PTI knows they mesh incredibly well together and I think this pairing could create the appeal ESPN thought Tony could have when they hired him for MNF. Of course Mike is still around but he never really impacted a broadcast for me either way.

Now if they could just get some better games than they had last season, this will be some must see TV.

They should replace EVERYONE who announces football on ESPN and ABC. They're all horrible...

Hell, they should replace the production team, too. Last season, instead of viewing extra points they advertised "Dancing With The Stars." This was on ESPN mind you, not ABC (and yes, I'm aware they are owned by the same parent.)

Good move, but it doesn't help the basic problem with MNF, which is that its producers and management treat it like an entertainment spectacle rather than a football game. Jaws can do all he likes and Tony may be better, but unless they stop the stupid guests and other irrelevancies, the change will be marginal.

You'd think people running the world's largest sports network would understand that its audience wants a sports telecast, not a GIANT SPECTACLE. I would understand if MNF was still on ABC and needed to draw network-level numbers.